U of I launches Soldier Field football game ads

The billboard that will be on displayfor the next six weeks at theOgilvie Transportation Center.

Six weeks ahead of its second football game at Soldier Field, the University of Illinois is launching a wide-ranging promotional campaign to spur ticket sales that will include the debut of an online marketing strategy from California-based Live Nation Entertainment.

During the broadcast of this week's first Chicago Bears preseason football game, TV and radio ads will promote Illinois' "Chicago Homecoming" game against Washington on Sept. 14.

That effort will complement digital, print and online ads as well as out-of-home advertising that will include a large "Paint Chicago Orange" billboard at the Ogilvie Transportation Center.

But Illinois and Live Nation Entertainment have teamed up on what they see as an especially innovative marketing technique. Starting this week and leading up to the game, anyone in the Chicago metro area who purchases a ticket online to any event through Live Nation subsidiary Ticketmaster — sports or otherwise — will be asked to input an Illinois-themed slogan to confirm the purchase instead of a goofy word that is difficult to read.

Examples include "Our State, Our Team," which is the school's statewide athletics branding slogan, and "Illinois Homecoming in Chicago," among others.

Replacing CAPTCHA ("Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart") tools with Illini-themed wording "will showcase the brand in Chicago," said Matt Wszolek, associate director of development and corporate sales for U of I athletics.

"We're trying to cut through the clutter," he said. "Everybody hates that bot (detector). This turns it into a positive."

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It's a first for Live Nation, which explained that replacing the typical bot tester method is possible because computers can't automatically read the ads.

"Our ability to target fans down to the venue or genre provides brands with a powerful message to the right fan at the right time, which research shows they will remember in blind tests later on," said Michael Myers, regional vice president for Live Nation. "We've seen that when fans are presented with a unique or catchy type-in phrase, they will react positively to the whole experience, taking what was once an annoyance and providing them a better user experience all around."

Finally, topping off the campaign will be a luncheon the Thursday before the game at Wildfire in downtown Chicago with Illinois football legend Dick Butkus, who will also appear at an Illini Fest event before the game and will do the pregame coin toss.

The ad push for the game also marks the latest chapter in the scramble between the Illini and the Northwestern University athletic department for more fan market share in the Chicago area.